


The first Kaboom

by robin_the_person



Category: Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Procedures, Team as Family, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27977163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_the_person/pseuds/robin_the_person
Summary: While the boys have snuck out of the Zoo Rico get's hurt.But of course his family is there to help him.In this story our four main Penguins are children and Manfredi and Johnson take the roles of guardians/older cousins.(I like to think that they were with them in their early days in the Zoo)Rated T for blood and injury
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	The first Kaboom

**Author's Note:**

> This story formed while I was drawing something for the backstory theme of the 2020 Madagascar Party event.  
> I was wondering how Rico developed his special interest for explosives and this happened.  
> Please enjoy!

Rico was trembling. From shock more than pain. He clutched at his beak and immediately regretted it at the burning pain that ensued but didn’t let go. The pain was good right now. Yes, it was blinding and shrill but it helped him not to think about what had happened just a few minutes ago.

This couldn't be real this couldn't be real this couldn't be real, no, this couldn’t be real.

He heard his oldest brother, Skipper, say something in a worried sounding voice but he couldn’t make out what, because everything sounded like he was underwater and his ears were still ringing.

He felt someone touch his back and immediately curled himself into a ball, twitching and whimpering. It was all too much. His flipper dug into the fresh wound on his face and he could feel the blood smear onto his feathers.

The touch on his back stopped and he heard Manfredi speak,

"Let's give him some space. Johnson is handling this."

Next, he heard some murmured protests from his brothers and the soft ‘pat pat pat’ of webbed feet retreating on the tiles.

It had all gone so fast. The memory was all jumbled and murky.

But there had been a flash of something sharp and a sudden stinging pain followed by a distraught scream that could either have been his own or that of his brothers.

After that the first thing he remembered was being picked up and carried and p lifted through a window by large flippers and finally ending up where he was now, on the ground, in a room full of shelves.

It had all gone too fast. Flash, pain, scream. And blood. He should have stayed home. It had all gone so fast. Flash, pain-

A firm touch interrupted his spiraling thoughts. 

Johnson pulled his cramped up flipper from his injured face.

"Stop touching that. You will tear it up worse and it will need stitches."

Rico stared at his blood-smeared flipper for a beat and then unfurled his body from the ball he had been curled up into, to look up at Johnson’s face. His older teammate's brows were furrowed.

"We need to clean it first. Can you hold still for me while I do that? It will burn."

Rico nodded weakly. His trembling flippers by his side now.

Johnson took hold of the uninjured side of his beak and Rico flinched back.

The older penguin sighed and lowered his appendage.

“Here, how about this,” he took Rico’s flipper in one of his own, “When it hurts you can squeeze my flipper, but in return you have to hold your head perfectly still,” he underlined his words with a gentle squeeze. “Will that work?”

“Huh-uh,” Rico affirmed the proposal and tightened his hold experimentally. 

It didn’t really make him feel better but he understood that it would have to work.

“Okay, on three I’ll pour the disinfectant.”

“One, two, three.”

The sting of the alcohol in Rico’s wound was stronger than expected. He pressed his eyes closed and clenched his flipper into a tight fist around Johnson’s, his whole body tensing up but he stayed as still as he could.

Johnson emptied the remaining disinfectant over his flippers for good measure and dropped the empty bottle to the floor. Then he opened a pack of sterile wound pads with the help of his beak.

While carefully wiping down the edges of Rico’s wound he spoke,

“we really are lucky that we found this pharmacy and that their security system is so weak. I would have preferred to drop you off at a veterinary hospital but that would probably have motivated some questions we don't want to be asked, like why a young penguin escaped from the zoo. Plus this was closer.”

When he was done he threw the soiled piece of gauze to the side and started to open a package of band aids.

“This would be a lot worse if I needed to do actual stitches," he spit out a bit of the plastic wrapping. "I do need both flippers for the next step. Do you think you can maybe hold onto this instead?”

Rico opened his eyes. Johnson had slid a big package of bandages his way.

Rico nodded.

When, after a moment he still felt the adult penguin’s expectant gaze on him he hurriedly let go of him and grabbed the pack of bandages instead, clutching it tight to his chest with both flippers.

“Alright then, how are you holding up, soldier?”

“Ah dun ow ...”

"This will be the last step but I'll have to touch your beak for it. You think you can hold on through that?”

“Huh-uh.”

Rico closed his eyes again, so he couldn’t see how Johnson pinched the cut on his face shut and stuck the wound band aids on to keep it closed,

But flipping heck, he did feel it. And how he did not enjoy feeling it.

He became dizzy for a moment, from the pain and how incredibly uncomfortable it was to be touched right now.

“Okay, that was it. How are we doing”

“Uh-uh,” Rico shook his head.

“We are pretty much done. We just need to clean up and that's it.I would have given you some painkillers but I'm not actually a medic and wouldn't know how to dose them for a small chick like you.”

Rico didn't reply to that. He had only caught about half of it because he still heard like from underwater and now the ringing was back.

He could feel a reassuring flipper on his shoulder but it didn't help at the moment. The point of contact felt uncomfortable and too real, warm and a bit wet from the disinfectant. And now his mind had shifted to what he felt with his body. None of it was good. His posture felt twisted, his face itched under the band-aids, his flippers were sticky with blood. Blood? Right. His blood. His beak hurt.

He vaguely felt his face and flippers being cleaned with wet wipes.

He still couldn't believe what had happened. He didn't want to believe what had happened. Unwanted, the flashes of memory came again. It had all gone too fast, a laugh, a grin, a flash and-

"We're back! How did it go?" 

That was unmistakably Manfredi's voice.

When Rico looked up from where he had been sightlessly staring at his flippers, which were now clean, he saw him and the rest of the team jump in through a window. 

Kowalski recognised the state Rico was in and moved to distract Private.

"Went pretty well. Rico here is a brave little soldier. But he's still - like this. Probably shock."

"We have something that will shock him right out of that shock!" Skipper exclaimed.

There was a brief pause. Rico saw his oldest brother proudly present a colourful cardboard box to Johnson. 

"You really think, fireworks are the best idea right now?" Johnson asked Manfredi, 

"Something loud and bright might not be optimal."

Manfredi started to say something but Kowalski interrupted 

"Intense stimuli should be ideal to interfere with the beginnings of a dissociative episode, which in many cases occur after traumatic events and match Rico's current behaviour. There is however a 47 percent chance Rico is already experiencing sensory overload, which would be aggravated by this."

"What I think Kowalski is saying," said Manfredi, "is that Skipper here is pretty much right."

"Yeah I am right! Now, we're going to go outside and light some fireworks. Any objections to that?"

Rico didn't answer again. This time because he was too busy staring intently at the second, bigger box that Manfredi was holding. It was a bright red and had colorful pictures of explosions and sparkles printed on it.

Johnson sighed and leaned down to Rico.

"Right. We are doing this. But first sign that it's going bad and we grab the kid and all run a few blocks away from where the action is happening.

Can you walk, Rico?"

Rico looked up at Johnson blankly, slightly perturbed to be torn away from the images on the box.

"Huh, guess I'll carry him."

As he was being picked up again, Rico heard Private's small voice, 

"Skippah, do I get to hold a sparkler?"

At the edge of his vision Rico could see that Skipper ruffled the feathers on their littlest brother's head with a smile.

"Yes Private, you do. 

Now team, let's move!"

~~~

Shortly after, the pharmacy was empty. The only evidence that the penguins had been there being some trash and puddle of disinfectant on the floor...

…And the sound of firecrackers going off outside the window, mixed with ecstatic shouts of "Kaboom! Kaboom!"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it!  
> This is my first ever fanfiction so any and all feedback is welcome!


End file.
